Long before he became a medical doctor, Ken Rexinger grew up in Mission Viejo tagging along with his father, Dr. Elwyn Rexinger, on medical rounds at Mission Hospital.

Today, father and son share a medical practice in San Clemente, the beach town where they both chose to reside more than 20 years ago.

We asked them about family, their shared journey and living and working in a family-run San Clemente office after decades in Mission Viejo:

Q. Dr. Elwyn, what led you into medicine?

A. While I was growing up on a farm in South Dakota, my mother had wanted me to be a doctor. My wife’s sister and her husband both entered medical school and convinced me to enter medicine. They also were instrumental in building Mission Hospital and invited me to join the staff a year after opening in Mission Viejo.

Q. How different was the South County and medicine then?

A. Elwyn: Tremendous changes have occurred in the past 43 years — replacing grass-covered hills and grazing deer and cattle with lovely communities and connecting freeways in place of two-lane highways.

Medicine has seen remarkable advances in technology from the days before ultrasound, CT scans, MRIs and interventional cardiac procedures. Back then, we had to diagnose serious problems without any imaging.

Q. Dr. Ken, what inspired your interest in medicine?

A. We moved to Mission Viejo in 1972, right after the hospital was built, to help out my aunt with her family practice. Dad would take me on rounds with him. I loved seeing the patients and talking with the other doctors. Dad could figure out the most complex illnesses just by talking with the patients and picking up on the little clues in their history.

It was a small town back then. You couldn’t go to a store without someone stopping Dad to thank him for taking such good care of them. The patients would ask, “Are you going to be a doctor just like your dad?”

At least a couple times a week, Dad would discuss his case of the day, complete with the history of present illness. Even as a kid, I’d try to guess the diagnosis. When I started on the wards in medical school, I found that internal medicine came naturally to me because of the love for diagnostics instilled over the dinner table.

Q. How is it, sharing a practice with your father?

A. We still go over our “case of the day” and try to stump each other. It’s just so reassuring to be able to walk 20 feet and ask your dad for his help. He still mentors me, and being able to bounce ideas off each other makes us both better physicians.

Q. What led you to be San Clemente residents?

A. Ken: Growing up, I spent most of my summers in San Clemente Boogie Boarding all day at T-Street or the pier. We spent almost every Fourth of July watching fireworks off the pier, having an all-day picnic with extended family and friends. I always wanted to live down here. After med school, I moved with my wife, Lisa. Now my kids Boogie Board at the same beach.

Elwyn: After 20 years living in the beautiful, growing Mission Viejo community, we decided to experience San Clemente and enjoy “air conditioning” by simply opening the windows to the ocean breeze.

Q. How did you come to share a practice in San Clemente?

A. Ken: Dad has practiced at Mission Hospital for 43 years and I for 23 years. When Mission Heritage Medical Group wanted to expand their outreach to San Clemente, they asked for volunteers to open their first satellite office. We jumped at the chance to practice where we live and take care of our own community. Many of our neighbors and San Clemente residents were making the drive and encouraged Dad and I to make the change.

Elwyn: Our practices have merged to about the same spectrum. I have phased out surgical assisting in the hospital and am now utilizing hospitalists for inpatient care. While I have years of experience seeing a wide variety of medical problems, Ken has greater facility in using technology to research the unusual presentation of symptoms, as well as personally reviewing patients’ imaging studies to correctly diagnose their medical issues and provide up-to-date treatment.

Q. Do father and son treat the same patients?

A. Ken: Dad is a board-certified family practitioner and takes care of the whole family. I am an internal medicine specialist and take care of adults. We cover each other’s patients when needed and see our own patients mainly. If one of us is taking a day off, the other is there at the office.

Elwyn: We often discuss various problems. He may perform a treadmill test on my patient with cardiac concerns, or I may remove a skin lesion on his patient.

Q. What are patients’ reactions to a father/son doctor’s office?

A. Ken: People enjoy the family atmosphere. Mom manages the place, and most of the staff have been with us for 20 years. People are recognized by the front office staff when they come in, and eventually patients become part of our family.

Elwyn: Our patients do appreciate our family teamwork in caring for them and their families and friends.

Fred Swegles grew up in small-town San Clemente before the freeway. He has covered the town since 1970. Today he covers San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. He was in the second graduating class at San Clemente High School, after having spent the first two years of high school in double sessions at historic Capistrano Union High School in San Juan. When the new high school opened, he became first sports editor of the school paper, The Triton. He studied journalism and Spanish at USC on scholarship, graduating with honors. Was sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Surfed on the USC surf team. (High school surfing didn't exist back then.) With the Sun Post, he began covering competitive surfing from the mid-1970s, with the birth of the the modern world tour and the origins of high school surf teams. He got into surf photography and into world travel. Has surfed on six continents (not Antarctica). Has visited 11 San Clementes. Has written photo-illustrated profiles on most of them, with more in the works.

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